Sam Farr was a Democratic Member of the U.S. House of Representatives who representd the 17th Congressional District of California. Born on July 4, 1941 in San Francisco, he grew up in a political home; his father served for many years as a California state senator.

In 1993, when veteran Democratic congressman Leon Panetta resigned in order to take a position as head of President Bill Clinton's Office of Management and Budget, Farr won Panetta’s vacated seat in a special election. He was re-elected by a wide margin in every congressional race thereafter until 2016, when he did not seek re-election.

In February 2002 Farr was part of a delegation of California congressional Democrats -- among whom were such notables as Bob Filner and Diane Watson -- who, along with entertainer Carole King, paid a friendly visit to Havana in an effort to soften American policy toward Fidel Castro's Cuba. In 2003 Farr co-sponsored a bill to ease restrictions against U.S. trade with Cuba.

Farr was one of 27 Members of Congress to co-sponsor H. Res. 333, which Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced on April 24, 2007. This bill set forth articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney, for having “purposely manipulated the intelligence process” to “deceive” American citizens and Congress alike “about a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, to justify the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against Iraq in a manner damaging to U.S. national security interests.”

On January 27, 2010, Farr was one of 54 Members of Congress who signed a letter addressed to Barack Obama, calling on the President to use diplomatic pressure to end Israel's blockade of Gaza – a blockade which had been imposed in order to prevent the importation of weaponry from Iran and Syria.